rpanons | You'll always have anons

You'll always have anons

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Hey! I started with this dude, does anybody have advice?

tips to keep in mind, things to avoid - really anything would be appreciated, i'm still getting my thoughts in order and would love to have something to chew on as i go back and reread lb6! i'm not sure on canonpoint yet, or rather, i might want to jump around between them, so advice on playing her from different parts of her journey would be swell too!

Hey, neighbor! Silent Spring is a semiprivate suburban 60s horrorgame based loosely on the likes of We're Still Here, Holly Heights, and similar. Characters wake up in the uncannily idyllic early 1960s suburbia of Sweetwater, Maryland, an integrated bedroom community of Washington, DC - in the same household as a complete stranger to whom they have apparently always been married, at least according to the eerily and unwaveringly chipper neighbors who seem to know a little more than they should.

Because of the nature of the time period and in the interest of creating a game that's enjoyable for everyone, we're looking for sensitivity readers to offer their thoughts on NPCs/events/environmental details and mechanics. There is a wonderful panel of volunteers who have been helping me with depictions of areas of marginalization I don't personally face, but we still have a few blind spots the pool of our shared experiences doesn't reach as well as areas where there are only a few of us who can weigh in. More opinions are always better because things vary within communities so although a lot of the game's mechanics are written from my/my associates' lived experiences and comfort levels interacting with them in a fictionalized setting, we welcome additional thoughts.

Right now there is a particular need for sensitivity readers for:
— visible physical disabilities, including people who use wheelchairs; experiences using prostheses or braces of any kind are particularly valuable
— black women/men/nonbinary people — because a big part of the horror is the suffocating nature of era-typical sexism and the town is about 40-40 black and white, black women and femmes' perspectives are a particularly high priority. Thoughts on black femininity and gender constraints as they manifest in black women/femmes' lives as well as what conformity horror means to you are very important!
— Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, and any Latine perspectives
— Indian and/or leftist, practicing Hindu perspectives, especially from Indian people who have been through/in academia, Hindi speakers, and anyone who's lived in Bengaluru/Delhi

If you have any questions about the game, please direct them to the FAQ page or PM this account/PP the mod plurk so that this request stays on topic. Thanks!

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Inspired by something from the rp woes thread.

Do any of you have advice for writing characters that have super negative, bitchy internal dialogue without being off-putting ooc? I play a character that doesn’t like interacting with strangers (not in a shy way, in a ‘I don’t like people’ way), so whenever they meet someone new, their internal dialogue becomes pretty mean. Are there any good ways to keep these tags from seeming hostile ooc, not interested in CR, etc?

I play these types often with zero issue and usually it's because oocly I try to be overly friendly/acknowledge my character is a complete dick.

Internally, unless it's a super serious/emotional thread I'll write some kinda jab at my own character.

Regardless there are SOME people who take things very personally no matter how you act or say or low-key are too invested in their own character that they take things against them personally. Sometimes you just can't win.

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(Anonymous) - 2024-02-08 21:10 (UTC) - Expand

my solution is to not write internal dialogue. i focus on their physical actions and reactions in the thread and then what they say out loud, which usually carries their mood anyway. or i'll say something like "he doesn't want to be here but he knows that he has to try to be friendly" or something. and then in the tags i also make sure to have (e.g.) something happen that forces my character to stick around or otherwise make conversation so it's clear that i'm not oocly trying to leave the scene.

agreed with the other anon as well that it's good to make jokes about your character and let them be the butt of the joke. if you act like you're taking them too seriously it will come across that you might also be hostile and standoffish.

having internal dialogue that just bitches and complains and insults the other character can be confusing and is also lazy characterization. find other ways to show that your character is antisocial that don't rely on childish eye rolling or whatever it is.

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(Anonymous) - 2024-02-08 18:33 (UTC) - Expand

+1

(Anonymous) - 2024-02-09 19:05 (UTC) - Expand

I played a massive jerk and had a big CR circle with him, and this is what worked for me:

There was always some reason he kept interacting with someone. I made sure to mention that reason in his internal monologue. Maybe he was annoyed by the superhero, but he was also curious about said hero's determination. Maybe he found the magical girl's unconditional kindness frustratingly naive, but at the same time part of him was envious and admired her for it.

Including stuff like that signals to other players that you're actually reading their tags, understanding their character, and making use of the hooks they're giving you.

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(Anonymous) - 2024-02-08 16:52 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2024-02-08 17:09 (UTC) - Expand

You almost always cannot write an asshole character or jerk and be a one sentence dialogue only type of tagger when you're in a proper scene. you NEED an internal monologue. Otherwise you're just being an asshole and 90% of sane rpers will have their character just walk away after a few tags.

Even a single sentence of something like 'x knows he's being abrasive, but y has a good point and that makes him uncomfortable' can go a long, long way for the rest of your thread.

I just go for broke and write out every shitty bitchy asshole thought in my character's head because ic=/=ooc but make sure to lace the tag with hooks the other character can engage with. if my character makes an assumption, let it be something the other character can disprove or reinforce. if my character thinks the other character can be easily manipulated, say so in a way the other player can lean into or lean out of. be detailed in your character's hater ways.

"Sour Jerk assumes Bigtitty Nicegirl sucks and is stupid." unspecific. boring. reveals nothing other than jerkishness.

"Sour Jerk assumes Bigtitty Nicegirl never had to lift anything heavier than a book in her life. Probably had men falling left and right over themselves to help her out.... not like anyone had ever helped Sour Jerk out after taking one look at her face." specific about dislike and its source and motivation. reveals character. could be countered or reaffirmed.

I'm developing an OC who tends to mutter to herself a lot because she's used to thinking aloud and often works alone, and it carries over into her interactions with other people. I'm not sure how to portray that in RP, or to what extent I should before it becomes annoying. Is anyone familiar with characters who tend to do that, and if so, is there any advice anyone can provide?

Related, I am also looking for characters who do that in their canons, just for other examples.

boku dake ga inai no machi's protagonist has that quirk. he'll sometimes blurt out things he was thinking without meaning to, usually resulting in him realizing he was rude and going, "wait, i said that out loud?"

he does it pretty rarely, though

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(Anonymous) - 2024-02-09 02:34 (UTC) - Expand

If you want to express the quirk without having what she's saying directly responded to, mentioning that she's talking to herself under her breath or whatever is fine. You can keep it vague that way. If it is something you want to give the other character an opportunity to reply to, you can write out the dialogue inside the brackets, too.

[ Blah blah, Sally mumbles to herself as she does her thing, unmindful of her audience. Remembering she has company, she tacks on, more audibly: ] Oh, hello, this is dialogue!

Depending on who you're tagging, some players will feel obligated to respond to every bit of dialogue, even what is in the brackets. Just something to keep in mind. I also wouldn't do this in every single tag, because imo it's kind of a struggle to play off a character where half of what they're saying is only supposed to be ooc knowledge, especially when the interesting stuff is the stuff my blorbo can't reply to.

Re: CHARACTER ADVICE

(Anonymous) - 2024-02-09 02:36 (UTC) - Expand

cw: references to fictional SA

thought that's been rattling around my head for awhile, and i'm not sure this is the correct thread for it, but:

if you play a character who has canonically committed SA (say Griffith from Berserk), but you never intend to reference it in play (via dialogue, brackets, memshare, etc), would it still be proper courtesy to put up an opt out in your journal advertising the fact about your character so people can, well, avoid your character?

on one hand, it may unnecessarily alarm other players who may become understandably distressed that you might choose to reference these things, especially as you're playing the perpetrator, even if you as a player intend to never bring it into play. on the other, i can only imagine it would be incredibly icky for someone to find out after the fact, just by chance (seeing discussions of a character somewhere, reading a wiki article, or such).

the character i'm thinking of is some anime character too obscure to get canonmates, so the idea that canonmates may also app bring it up is somewhat irrelevant to me, but also a valid hypothetical concern other players may have.

if there's been previous discussions on the topic, please link me. i've not made a journal or considered playing a character like this in more than passing because i really have no clue if any proper etiquette can save a character like this from causing discomfort. maybe it's better to just not bother play them?

id say it is yeah

i make it a general rule to have an opt-out if i play a character that has touched anything like that. just simplifies things for me and for others imo

I wouldn't let it stop you from playing the character, but yeah, an opt out would be the right thing to do. You don't have to go into a bunch of detail (and imo your shouldn't) but a simple "blorbo has committed SA in his past, comment here to opt out" somewhere visible on your journal would be enough to cover your ass in case someone canon blind decides to check out your character's wiki.

you're welcome to play any character you want. you just need to remember that everyone may not want to play with them—which, clearly, you already do!

in a situation like this, i would put up an opt out. keep it short and simple.

you don't need to "defend" your character or anything, but just list it's in their past and any other relevant info that may make someone want to opt out.

in addition to what other anons have said (which is good advice), i see nothing wrong with mentioning that it's not content you're interested in exploring so it's unlikely to come up in threads, while still leaving the opt-out option fully open. as long as you're only stating it and aren't defensive about it like one other anon said, it's a good distinction imo since some people may only care about having to deal with it in threads and not about it existing at all.

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(Anonymous) - 2024-02-10 03:38 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2024-02-10 04:53 (UTC) - Expand

thanks all, i appreciate it :) definitely open to hearing additional perspectives if anyone has more to add (i'll keep checking this thread), but just wanted to put in a word of thanks for everyone's thoughts so far. extremely helpful if i do end up moving forward with playing this character.

Having played someone before from comics who was implied to have committed SA before and had powers that made any sexual content pretty much dub-con (think Kilgrave from Jessica Jones), definitely put this down. You can make it clear you're not interested in exploring it in RP but if you don't and someone finds out later, they might think you were trying to trick them or sweep it under the rug.

You can just put it in a general opt-out format along with everything else: "This character comes from a canon that has bloody gore, limb amputation, SA, and emotional abuse. Please let me know here if you want to opt-out of playing with any of that or the character entirely."

I agree yes, and I agree you can note that you aren't interested in bringing it up in thread.

My 2cents here is people might look up your character out of curiosity or even watch your canon, so the warning makes sure they aren't confused.

i see folks do them and i see people bypass them. is there a certain rule for this in the dwrp scene or is it a ymmv situation?

i think it's ymmv, but i use them because the canon i play from is so entrenched in japanese culture and focused on how japan's fixation with hierarchy and presenting an acceptable public face affects a person's identity that localization would result in the characters simply not being the same people anymore

i recognize that to some people, that probably makes me look like a cringe weeb, but oh well

CHARACTER ADVICE

Junpei Iori - Persona 3

Castoria | Fate/Grand Order

Silent Spring: looking for sensitivity readers!

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sa

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honorifics?

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"eldritch horror" type characters

yukari takeba - persona 3